The Darker Side of Belfast's History

History of Belfast's old Half Bap area

The Darker Side of Belfast’s History
LOWER DONEGALL STREET
“AND THE HALF BAP”
A
s important historically as it is important from
the commercial point of view, Donegall Street
forms a link with eighteenth century Belfast. It was
laid out in 1754 when the struggle for the independence of the
Irish Parliament was going on and when Belfast was the sole
property of the fourth Earl of Donegall, his estate being in the
hands trustees. The Belfast Newsletter had been established
seventeen years earlier in Bridge Street and in the edition of
September, 1754, the following appeared:Six or seven new houses are now building, and will be finished this season, on the ground laid out for a new street. The
new street will be very handsome - 600 yards long, 60 feet
wide, and the houses three storeys high. The Linen Hall, ranging on one side of the street - about the centre - will add to its
beauty. (No.1)
This new street was first called Linenhall Street, and later became Donegall Street.
The Linen Hall referred to was on the site now occupied by
Belfast Cathedral, and, when this was considered the most
suitable place for the erection of the new parish church, the
Brown Linen Hall was established in its stead on the other
side of the street. The Brown Linen Hall was opened in 1773,
and the clearing of this ground in 1920 removed the last important link with eighteenth century Donegall Street.
In 1768, David Manson, the famous Belfast schoolmaster,
erected a house in Donegall Street, almost opposite Talbot
Street, and in his advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter stated
that it commanded “a delightful prospect of land and water.”
“The healthful air” of the street was also mentioned as an inducement to parents to send their children to the new school.
In this connection, it may be mentioned that, scarcely thirty
years later, Dr William Drennan, one of the founders of the
United Irishmen, writing from Dublin to his sister, Mrs McTier,
expressed a different opinion as to the appearance of Donegall
Street. “I suppose my mother’s complaint to be merely a
ABOVE - The four corners at the junction of Donegall
Street and Waring Street.
RIGHT - Old Belfast map of 1685 with the line showing
where Donegall Street was later laid out.
Donegall Street cold,” he said, “for I consider it as the bleakest
situation of the bleakest street in the bleak north which she
has chosen for the cradle of her old age, and I wish she would
change it.”
In its early years Donegall Street, in the words of the Belfast
historian George Benn, was “an aristocratic neighbourhood in fact, the Donegall Place of its day,” and the opening of the
first place of business caused great annoyance to the residents.
The most remarkable figure in eighteenth century Donegall
Street was undoubtedly David Manson, who, in addition to
being a schoolmaster, conducted a brewery, wrote a book on
hand-loom weaving, improved the spinning wheel, and introduced what was called a flying chariot, perhaps the forerunner of the modern guider. Many sidelights on his numerous
activities are available from the old newspapers. In the Bel-
fast Newsletter of July 1st, 1768, Manson advertised that “Children and youths are boarded and taught the English language
by David Manson, at his house in Donegall Street, Belfast,
which is large and commodious, being built on purpose.” In
this house Manson carried on his school for fourteen years.
In the early part of the nineteenth century it was occupied by
Robert Gemmill, a well-to-do muslin manufacturer. From 1827
until 1870 the house was used as the local office of the Provincial Bank, and when the Bank moved to Hercules Place
(now Royal Avenue) the old school became a furniture warehouse, and was destroyed by fire on the 30th of January, 1891.
From this house David Manson moved to the corner of
Donegall Street and Waring Street opposite the old Exchange
where he died on the 2nd of March, 1792. He was interred by
torchlight in the old Parish Churchyard in High Street. In an
In recent times there have been various organisations in Belfast who have been making attempts
to change the history of our city. This seems to be occurring all over with a perfect example being
Lower Donegall Street. Over the years developers have decided to call this immediate area
‘Cathedral Quarter’ but to the citizens of Belfast it is, and always will be, the ‘Half Bap.’ The
Glenravel Project have been promoting the factual history of Belfast for years - “warts and all’
and if this doesn’t suit people then there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. After all, as the
developers should be well aware, we can change the future - we can’t change the past!
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1
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10
David Manson
article in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, published in 1908,
Mr J. Marshall quoted the following pen picture from an eye
witness of the scene:All classes respected him, and when death called him away
his admirers assembled and insisted on burying him by torchlight. The vivid scene comes back to me with the fresh recollection of yesterday. The slow, measured tread of the vast
multitude, the lights almost endless in profusion, waving, flickering, then stretching out a lurid flame, in which the dark pall
of the coffin glistened as with a ruby hue, the faces thrust out
of the windows to see the procession pass, and the shadows
thrown upon them by the moving lights - ah! those were the
times when there were faith and friendship and appreciation
of worth amongst the people of Belfast.
Another school which was established in this area was the
Belfast Royal Academy situated today on the Cliftonville Road
but how many people are aware that an armed rebellion was
once staged in the school?
ABOVE - Junction of Donegall Street and Academy Street
showing the principals house at the corner.
INSET The Rev. William Bruce
LEFT - Donegall Street in 1965
RIGHT - Destruction caused at the junction of Donegall
Street and Academy Street during the German blitz
The scene of this rebellion was not at the Cliftonville Road
premises but in the old school which was situated in Academy
Street (hence the streets name). (No. 2) In the schools early
years one of those who had taken it over was The Rev. William
Bruce. Bruce, described by the sister of William Drennan as
‘henpecked’ made many changes one of which was to abolish
the Easter holiday’s. Needless to say this did not go down too
well and in the twilight hours of the 12th of April, 1792, a
number of the pupils sneaked out of their dormitory, seized
five pistols and a considerable amount of ammunition as well
as a large quantity of food, and barricaded themselves into the
maths room. A short time later Bruce was informed of the
matter and told them that if they gave up the matter would go
no further. His wife told them to accept the offer but when
she turned to go the boys opened fire on her. Mr and Mrs
Bruce were so outraged and after obtaining a crowbar they
tried to smash their way into the room but retreated after coming under a considerable amount of gunfire.
The school’s president, John Holmes, was sent for but he was
also fired upon as was a mason who tried to pour water down
a chimney. The sovereign of Belfast (the Rev. William
Bristow) arrived and he informed the boys that the firing of
pistols was a capital offence but he was informed that he would
be shot in the wig if he did not go, even though two of the
rebels were relatives.
A letter was sent to the committee which read:We the supposed rebellious students of the Belfast Academy,
having repeatedly applied to Dr Bruce for holidays at Easter,
which he has as often refused us (although he granted it to
those who go home every Saturday) have now, after the example of other schools (contrary to our own inclination) taken
up arms to endeavour to gain by force what was denied to us
by entreaty. Any Gentleman will not hesitate to imagine that
the Strictness of the Rules of this Academy is intolerable. The
conditions on which we will surrender are the following:First
Allow us for holidays, three days at Easter and two at
Whitsuntide.
Secondly
One only for every new boarder (this is customary in every
school)
Thirdly
Permit any boy asked out to any Gentleman’s house on Sunday to stay to nine o’clock in the evening.
Fourthly
Allow any boy asked out on Saturday to stay till nine o’clock
on Sunday.
Fifthly
That you will not shorten our vacation.
Sixthly
That you will neither cause to be beat nor expelled any boy
after we surrender.
To Conclude
As our conditions are not difficult to be granted we hope that
you Gentlemen, professors of liberty, will incline a favourable
ear to our request. If, Gentlemen, you grant our request and
Dr Bruce will pledge his honour to see the articles herein required performed we will immediately surrender.
After further deliberations and a promise that they would not
be beaten the boys surrendered. The Rev. Bruce lied and the
following day they were each taken to the common hall and
whipped in front of the schools Patrons and other pupils until
their blood flowed from their backs - a practice the Rev. Bruce
carried out quite freely even without an armed rebellion.
At the opposite corner in Academy Street stood Belfast’s first
Post Office, the sign of which can be seen today in the Ulster
Museum. (No. 3) In these days the mail system was certainly
very different from the modern service given the fact that the
post had to arrive by stage coaches which had armed guards
placed on them to prevent highway robbery.
Most of the area northward from Donegall Street and along
what is now York Street was known as the ‘Point Fields.’
(No 4) This was mainly large open spaces which seemed to
attract many types of sports. This consisted mainly of various
games but also included many ‘sports’ which involved extreme cruelty to animals. The most notable was cock fighting
and dog fights but also included was bull and badger baiting
where the unfortunate animals where usually torn to bits by
vicious dogs. There are also a few cases of bear baiting. Here
was also where most of the prize fights took place in which
two strong men fought bare fisted in an early and bloody form
of boxing.
Considerable destruction was caused to this area during the
Luftwaffe blitz. During the period before this most people in
Belfast believed that they were out of reach for the German
planes but in Easter 1941 they were to be proved wrong. In
the immediate area there were a lot of targets such as the city
centre, York Street Mill and of course Victoria Barracks. The
area where the modern art college is now situated was in fact
flattened by the Luftwaffe resulting in numerous deaths due
to the stupid belief that Belfast was unreachable. (No. 5)
A house in Robert Street, which was situated directly behind
St. Anne’s Cathedral, ( No. 6) was the scene of the brutal murder of a poor defenceless woman by the name of Mary Anne
Phillips in 1888. When police arrived at the scene they found
the woman's dead body lying inside the house. She had been
badly beaten. The head and face were covered with blood
from eight different wounds, varying from two inches to half
an inch in length, some of which penetrated to the bone. The
police quickly ascertained what had happened with the help
of the main witness, an unfortunate young boy of only seven
years. He pointed the guilty finger at his father, Arthur
McKeown, a married man who was separated and lived at the
time at 38 Robert Street with Mary Anne Phillips as husband
and wife. He was promptly arrested and remanded in
custody.
He eventually went on trial before Mr. Justice Holmes and a
twelve man jury at Belfast Crown Court. Counsel for the prosecution opened the case claiming that the evidence which they
intended to submit constituted a continuous and unbroken chain
of events which would leave the jury without the slightest doubt
of the accused’s guilt. They then proceeded to call on several
witnesses who outlined McKeown’s movements on the hours
leading up to the murder. This process finished with the evidence of a Mrs Margaret Crommie who on the night in question was standing on the corner of Robert Street at around
fifteen minutes after midnight. Arthur McKeown called on
her saying that he thought Mary Phillips was dead or dying
and that he did not know whether to send for the doctor or the
police. Just at that the police came into the street and everyone went into 38 Robert Street.
Constable John Douglas then went to describe the scene before him as he entered the house. In the back room off the
kitchen the body of the murdered woman had been lying between the bed and a chest of drawers, parallel to the bed with
the head resting on a pillow which was soaked in blood. There
was a pool of blood half way between the body and the door
which bore the evidence of an attempt to brush the same pool
away. While Constable Douglass was examining the scene
the accused entered the room and made the following extraordinary statement which the constables took a note of at the
time; "You need not be uneasy about her . She has often been
ABOVE - The junction of Donegall Street and York Street
after the Luftwaffe Blitz
CENTRE - Robert Street, was so notorious that the local
authorities changed its name to Exchange Street West.
RIGHT - Belfast map of 1888 showing the Lower Donegall
Street area
this way before. All the woman wants is to get pumped, then
she will be all right. The fact of the matter is, she has me
robbed. She went away in July last, taking £7 or £8 with her,
and when she got me away at the Maze races she took two or
three more out of that chest of drawers. Tonight I got her in a
house in Morrow’s Entry, and brought her home. Shortly afterwards we went to bed. I was lying at the wall and she next
the door. About eleven o’clock the children wakened me, saying their mother was at the drawer again. When I got up she
was lying as you see her. I then rose and went out and told
Maggie Crommie. She said it would be better to tell the police. There was a bottle of whiskey on the drawers when we
went to bed and if you were to see all that is left of it; I suppose she was drunk and fell out of bed. Do you accuse me of
giving her foul play?" The police, on conducting a search of
the house discovered a mans shirt rolled up under the pillows
and covered with blood as well as spots of blood on the accused’s clothes. The police also commented on the fact that
the bed appeared as if no-one had slept in it that particular
night. Dr. W.C. Graham, who examined the body gave it as
did the accused commit the act laid at his charge, and second,
if he did commit it, was he so provoked that the act was not
done wilfully, feloniously, and of his malign afterthought. He
put forward the suggestion that the woman had been murdered
by a third party and concluded by urging the jury that if they
did not believe a third party was involved they could convict
him of a lesser crime of manslaughter if they believed that the
crime had not been wilful or premeditated.
The judge then summed up by explaining the law to the jury
before they retired to decide their verdict. After a half an hour
they jury returned with a verdict of guilty. The accused was
taken away to the gaol to await execution.
Arthur McKeown was 35 years of age and was born at Carrick
Hill in Belfast. His parents kept a small grocers shop on the
corner of Carrick Hill and Kent Street. His two little children
aged five and seven were placed in the Belfast Workhouse.
On Monday January 14th at Eight o’clock in the morning
McKeown paid the full penalty for his crime on the scaffold
at Belfast Prison. Crowds began to gather from Carlisle Circus right up to the gates of the gaol from as early as six thirty
his opinion that the wounds on Mary Phillips’ body could not
have been self-inflicted nor could they have been as a result
of a fall. These findings were supported by Dr. Samuel McKee
and so the Crown case closed.
The defence explained the seriousness of the jury’s task and
asked them to consider two questions very carefully - first,
eager to monitor the movements of anyone entering the prison.
The scaffold had been erected at the end of ‘D’ Wing (the
eastern wing of the prison). The hangman was Berry and he
and his able assistant had to adjust the rope so that all would
go smoothly at the fateful hour. There was nothing peculiar
about the scaffold as the mechanics were exactly the same as
Gordon Street in 1933
those used throughout the country. There was however this
difference taken as a whole: the condemned man was asked to
ascend a staircase, the platform being on a level with the corridor. This arrangement while convenient from the inside necessitated the digging of a pit underneath, to a depth of some
three or four feet to allow a sufficient drop. The bottom of
this pit was strewn with sawdust. The press were allowed to
visit the scaffold before the actual execution and after this they
proceeded to interview the hangman. With a grin on his face
that morning Berry explained that he had "pushed off" considerably more than one hundred people in his time and the
rope he would be using to hang McKeown would be a tried
and trusty Manilla of the Government regulation type, threequarter inch diameter. He went on to explain that he would
have given the prisoner an eight foot drop, but fearing the
weakness of his neck and considering that he was but little
over eight stone in weight, he had reduced it to seven. Notwithstanding this reduction he assured the press that the strain
on the neck was equal to one ton six and three quarter hundredweight. At that the sound of a heavy door opening along
the corridor brought silence among the gathering of journalists. Everyone now stood breathless, and the proverbial pin
falling would have caused confusion. The first breach of the
dead silence was caused by the Very Rev. John McAllister
reciting the prayers for the dying. As the procession came
into view it was reported that it was headed by Mr. H. H.
Bottomley, the Under-Sheriff, who was followed by Mr. Jeremiah McKenna, the deputy governor of the prison; Dr
Stewart, the medical attendant at the prison; the clergyman
already named, accompanied by Rev. Mr. McCartan, and the
accused, a number of warders bringing up the rear. Slowly
and solemnly the little company approached the hangman.
McKeown held a crucifix in his hands and prayed audibly as
Berry began to pinion him with the leather straps. When this
was done the party proceeded through another door to the scaffold. The hangman now directed the proceedings by placing
the condemned man over the trapdoor. The white cap was
then placed over his eyes, the legs were strapped together, the
assistant then handed the executioner the noose which he adjusted. All this time the man was constantly praying and imploring Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mercy. Stepping aside he touched the lever and
Arthur McKeown was launched into eternity. The last words
upon his lips were, "Into Thy hands Lord Jesus I commend
my spirit". McKeown died without making any formal admission of his guilt.
The black flag was hoisted just on the stroke of eight and the
large crowds who having their morbid curiosity satisfied, quietly dispersed.
Previously McKeown had appeared in the Belfast Police Courts
on several occasions charged with assaulting the same woman.
The street in which he lived in, Robert Street, was so notorious that the local authorities changed its name to Exchange
Street West.
Some of Belfastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most notorious slums were situated in the
streets and alleys which ran off Lower Donegall Street. Most
were the property of Hill Hamilton who lived in a massive
mansion at Mount Vernon. The houses were tiny and in many
cases they had up to seven families living in each with up to
ten people sometimes being crammed into one room. There
was no running water and water was often obtained through
The slums of old Donegall Street.
The spire of St Anne's Church can
be seen to the left.
Taken from the book Belfast, 1000 Years by Jonathan Bardon.
one tap which supplied most of the streets and which was often situated beside a toilet which served the same purpose.
It will be no surprise to learn that during the fever and cholera
epidemics these diseases spread like wildfire in areas such as
these. One one person living in the house caught it then it was
inevitable that all the others did and when one house was
affected then so was the whole lane or street. People were
dying at an alarming rate and the grave diggers at the nearby
Clifton Street Cemetery could not keep up as was described
in the Belfast Newsletter on the 9th of July, 1847:In the course of the present week we saw no fewer than twenty
coffins, containing the corpses of persons who had died of
fever in the various hospitals in town during the proceeding
twenty four hours lying for internment in that portion of the
New Burying Ground appropriated for that purpose; while
cart loads would arrive before the common grave was ready
for their reception.
F
In the 1850’s a local minister, the Rev. William O’Hanlon of
the Donegall Street Congregational Church (No.7), decided
to expose these dreadful living conditions through the letters
column of the Northern Whig newspaper and later compiled
them into a book Walks Among the Poor of Belfast. In this
book O’Hanlon describes the Donegall Street slums as
follows:Here my companion and myself fixed upon two houses as specimens of the whole. In one of these we found that seven persons live and sleep in the same room - their beds, if such they
may be called, lying upon the floor. The desolation and wretchedness of this apartment - without windows, and open in all
directions - it is utterly impossible to describe. Four of the
persons huddled thus together are females, the other three
males. And among these females, two, a mother and her grown
up daughter, have no affinity with the other inmates. In the
other house in the same “row” we discovered that a family of
or the young boys who lived in areas such as the slums in and around Donegall Street their future was indeed very bleak. Most
turned to crime such as pickpocketing and general theft but for others untold suffering and early death was what lay before
them.
There is an old superstition that a sweep is a bringer of luck, but why this should be is somewhat of a puzzle, as it was this very
occupation which was the cause of it.
Just over 150 years ago unwanted children were sold to sweeps who forced them to climb up the wide chimney’s of the period - often
while the fire was still burning. For this slave driving the sweep received (to quote from a Belfast price list of 1843) sixpence for
cleaning a chimney of two stories, rising by steps of 3d to 1s 3d for a chimney of five stories.
Worse still, as sweeps of that period were notoriously heavy drinkers, the child’s only reward for his deadly work would often be a
beating after his master had returned from drinking the day’s earnings.
The unfortunate children - usually spoken of as ‘Climbing Boys’ - seldom had beds and often slept on a bag of soot, spending their short
lives in an atmosphere of kicks, grime and dirt until death released them.
It is horrible to think that in January, 1834, one of these climbing boys was actually roasted alive while sweeping a Belfast chimney.
The local newspapers state that “the householder would not have the fire put out while the sweeping was being done. The child twice
came down the chimney, saying it was too hot, but was forced up again until he came down for the last time dead, with large patches of
his skin burnt off.”
A protest meeting of the townsfolk followed the death of the boy, but it was not until there had been many similar 'accidents' in England
that the Government was forced to take action. In 1840 legislation was passed forbidding the use of boys to clean chimneys.
This did not come into force, however, until 1842 and even after that date it seems to have been neglected as in June, 1851, Belfast
papers report that the boys were still climbing, and in August of the same year it was estimated that there were upwards of 30 climbing
boys working in the town.
It is not to be wondered that these unfortunate children were lacking in morals, as everyone’s hand must have seemed to be against
them. In January, 1843, a sweeps boy who stole a pair of shoes from a house in which he was working in the Malone Road was given
a savage prison sentence of several months. A local newspaper which reported the case seemed quite gleeful at what they called the
“Downfall of SOOTY.”
Mechanical chimney cleaners were advertised in Belfast in 1841, but so little was thought of child life - despite all the efforts of the
reformers - that climbing boys were still operating in Belfast up until the early 1900’s.
A Belfast lady who remembered climbing boys as a child remembers an early morning visit of a sweep attended by a climbing boy
who was the sweep’s own son. The lady of the house was so disgusted with the arrangement that she drove sweep and boy out of the
house, and it was many years before a sweep entered it again. The chimneys in the meantime were decarbonised by the ‘master’ of the
house firing up them with a blunderbuss.
seven sleep not only in the same room, but in the same bed.
This information we had from the poor half naked mother herself. Here the eldest daughter is nineteen years of age, and
the eldest son twelve. The revolting, disgusting and heart rending spectacle presented by the interior of this hovel, and by its
inmates, it is impossible to forget. It haunts one like a loathsome and odious spectre, from which the eye and the thoughts
cannot escape.
We entered Johnny’s Entry, which lies off Talbot Street, and
here we found some degrading and demoralising practice prevailing. In the very first house we visited in this place, the
husband, wife and six children all sleep together, the eldest
son being fourteen and the eldest daughter twelve years of
age. Morrow’s Entry runs between Hill Street and Gratten
Street and here, also, in the very first house we entered, we
learned that the father (the mother is dead) and all his children occupy but one sleeping apartment, the eldest daughter
being twenty six and another daughter seventeen years of age.
I should add, however, that my companion, whose walk, as a
town missionary, lies among people of the same social grade,
informs me that he often finds two, and even three, families all
occupying the same room - fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, all sleeping indiscriminately upon the floor.
Grattan Street was a small street off Gordon Street which was
the centre of the slum areas and which was later renamed
Dunbar Street (No. 8) In 1870 a man named James McKenna
owned its only public house which in reality was a hive for
prostitutes and criminals. In February of that year Mr
McKenna died in a tragic accident with his new wife in
Maghera when they were suffocated in a room in which they
were staying in. The public house, which was at the junction
of Talbot Street, continued but this time with the ghost of James
McKenna. Since his death many of the regulars continued to
state that they had seen Mr McKenna in the upstairs rooms
and these sightings were also by the new owners who were
quite sober at the time. Those who saw this claimed that it
was clearly Mr McKenna and was life like as opposed to being the traditional ghost image. It was never seen for any
great length of time as each sighting only lasted a few seconds
before completely disappearing.
Today when we think of unearthing skeletons in the centre of
a city we think of television programmes such as Time Team
but over the decades quite a few have been unearthed in Belfast. For example a skull found recently at a dig at the junction of Waring Street and Hill Street (No. 9) cast new light on
old medical practices. The male skull which may date from
medieval times had holes drilled in it. In ancient times this
practice - trephination - was used to release the pressure which
people then believed caused everything from migraine and
epilepsy to madness. Today a similar albeit more scientific
from of trephination is still used to relieve pressure on the
brain following an injury such as a depressed brain fracture.
Thankfully for the Waring Street ‘patient’, archaeologists believe he probably died naturally from ‘periostitis’. In all probability medical students of the time were then allowed to practice the art of trephination on the skull - which would explain
why no healing marks are evident. But how it came to rest in
Waring Street is a mystery which we may never solve. During
the Victorian period this corner was occupied by an R.I.C.
Barrack.
In nearby High Street quite a few skeletons were unearthed
when the old river was being covered indicating that in those
days many bodies of the dead were simply thrown into the
river which ran down the centre of High Street.
Skipper Street is the small street which connects Waring Street
to High Street. (No. 10) Not much is on it today but at the turn
of the last century it was a busy commercial area and at No. 3
was an office used by the military for recruiting into the Royal
Marines. In 1900 the recruiting sergeant was Sergt. Charles
Kebble who resided at lodgings at No. 4 Regent Street in the
Carrick Hill area the owners being Mr & Mrs Payne. On Saturday 18th August, 1900, Sergeant Kebble left his lodgings to
go to the Skipper Street office. Later that day his wife was
sitting in her Southampton home with the couples three children when one of them rushed into the room shouting “Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home.” When asked about this the child
stated that her father was in the upstairs bedroom looking out
the window. This was strange considering that Mr Kebble
was not due home for another seven weeks and Mrs Kebble
heard no one come in. She went upstairs with the excited
child to investigate and much to the child’s disappointment no
one was there. Mrs Kebble questioned the child further on
this but the little girl maintained that she had seen her daddy
standing at the window. Mrs Kebble checked the other rooms
of the house to make sure no one was in but found nothing.
About an hour had passed when the child screamed upstairs.
Her mother rushed up and found the young girl crying hysterically at the top of the stairs. When she eventually calmed
her down the little girl told her mother that her daddy was in
the room again and when she went to hug him he vanished
before her eyes. Mrs Kebble then went to a neighbour and
asked her to keep an eye on the children while she went to her
mother-in-laws home, which was only a short distance away.
She told her what was occurring and both women agreed that
it was all nothing more that an over active child's imagination.
Back in Belfast a few days had passed and Mr Kebble had not
returned home to his lodgings in Regent Street. Mr and Mrs
Payne were now concerned about him and set out to his office
in Skipper Street to find out if he had returned home. The
office was closed and they immediately knew that something
was wrong as the office was never closed during weekdays.
They then approached a police constable in nearby High Street
(Constable Godfrey Walker of Glengall Street Barracks) and
informed him of their concerns. All three returned to the recruiting office and the police officer forced open the door.
The constable then began to search the building and when he
reached the small toilet he discovered the body of Sergeant
Kebble in his full uniform suspended from the high ceiling.
Needless to say he had hanged himself and had been there
three days.
All these streets and alleys which made up one of Belfast’s
most notorious slums are now gone. Grattan Place, Grattan
Court, Talbot Court, Morrow’s Entry, to name but a few, were
pulled down while streets such as Grattan Street and Green
Street were changed to unrecognisable names in a foolish
attempt to clean up this part of the town. Needless to say life
went on for those who lived in and around this slum and crime
of every nature was committed day in, day out. Life was hard
but if anyone living in these slums were caught and brought
before the courts then life was made unbearable.
For example shortly after Queen Victoria came to the throne
the following sentences were imposed in July 1837 alone:Bridget Loughrey, stealing two gowns,
Transported 7 years.
John Cassidy and Charles Stewart,
stealing a chemise,
12 months in jail and whipped three times.
Thomas Ryan, stealing stockings,
Transported 7 years.
Francis Harvey, stealing two grates,
Transported 7 years.
George Warnock, (a cripple) assaulting a day constable,
Transported 7 years.
Ellen Brown and Ann Stitt, stealing a shawl,
Transported 7 years.
George McCormick, Henry Green, John Cornwell and
Eliza McKee, stealing from the dwelling house of John
Rutherford in Donegall Pass one slice of bacon,
Transportation 14 years.
Ann Murphy, stealing a shawl,
Transported 7 years.
John Molony, stealing a handkerchief,
Transported 7 years.
John McAlister and John Ward, burglary,
Death
John McClean, highway robbery,
Death
Russell Abbott and Alexander Park,
highway robbery,
Death
James McCloskey, larceny,
Transported 7 years
James Granny, larceny,
Transported 7 years
Belfast map of 1842 showing the slum area around Hill Street
and listing Grattan and Green Streets
Another duty for police patrols was that they were required
to kill wandering pigs and give them to the
Poor House at the top of Donegall Street.
This had no effect on crime as it simply continued. The prostitutes carried out their trade at the foot of Donegall Street
(No. 11) and when arrested they were held in the military
barracks. many of them would lure unsuspecting men back to
a house in the Hill Street area and once there rob them of
everything they had. In most cases the victim would have
been ashamed to report it and therefore the prostitutes mainly
got clean away with it.
But with crime come the police, which in these days were the
Belfast Police Force, some of whom were no better than the
criminals they were trying to protect the town of Belfast from.
The Bulkies, as they were known, were also fond of the prostitutes trade and any constable found in the company of prostitutes was dismissed and and quite a few were dismissed when
it was discovered they had VD.
The constables were entitled to half the proceeds of the sale of
stolen goods as well as half of the fines imposed on publicans.
When this was stopped the prosecutions against publicans was
dramatically reduced. Constables also received large cash
rewards from insurance companies when they discovered fires
leaving many to question who started them in the first place.
Drunkenness was such a problem in the Belfast Police Force
that publicans were ordered never to serve them.
But life for the police constable was also a tough one and in
addition to the constant crime in the Hill Street/Donegall Street
area one of the main problems they also faced here was cruelty to animals. There were numerous cases of dog and cock
fights as well as badger baiting in the fields beyond this district (now mainly York Street area) . However in February
1858 a Belfast man had killed two rats with his teeth for a
wager. The rats tails were nailed to a table in a public house
and the gambler had to kill them quicker than a dog which
was chasing three others on the floor. The ‘sportsman’ lost
and in the process had his face cut to pieces by the teeth and
claws of the rats. Another example was in June 1862 when a
scripture reader was prosecuted. John Wiley stuck the prongs
of a pitchfork through the eyes of a boy’s dog before disembowelling it with a knife. However, public opinion in this
case was so strong that he had to leave town.
Another duty for police patrols was that they were required to
kill wandering pigs and give them to the Poor House at the top
of Donegall Street. (No. 12) It was also their duty to kill any
dog within fifty yards of any public road that did not have a
5lb block of wood around its neck.
The Belfast Police Force was stood down on the 1st of September 1865. Belfast Protestants were very angry when they
were replaced by the Royal Irish Constabulary and referred to
them as a ‘bloody lot of Fenians." Belfast’s Catholics weren't
over the moon either and referred to the RIC as "Orange Peelers." A Belfast judge later remarked that the only thing that
united Catholics and Protestants in Belfast was "their common hatred of the police."
One of the main money making activities for some of the men
folk was bodysnatching. This is when a dead body is stolen
from a grave and sold to members of the medical profession
for various experiments. There are countless cases of
bodysnatching in Belfast mainly from the Poor House Graveyard which was behind the building (No. 12) There are various reports on this activity to be found in the old Northern
Whig newspapers but one interesting report told of the appearance in court of James Stewart, James Pemblico and Robert
Wright who were all charged with the offence of attempting
to steal away bodies from the New Burying Ground (Poor
House Ground now known as Clifton Street Cemetery) on the
night of the 24th of November, 1827. Part of it reads:Between five o’clock and six o’clock on Monday morning, the
watchman at the cemetery was accosted by one of the
prisoners who asked him did he ever ‘ rise a body ‘ as it was a
proceeding which gave him such delight.
The watchman surprised at the question, immediately entered
the graveyard but found all right and on his return he was told
that if he would consent to join in the work, money and drink
should be given him in abundance.
Determined to detect the persons who attempted to bribe him
from his duty, he manifested an inclination to come to terms
and subsequently made an appointment to meet his unknown
friends at a public house at 10 o’clock. He met the three
prisoners there, who treated him with ale, entered fully on the
subject, discussed the pleasures of bodysnatching, and
promised to give him two sovereigns for allowing them to
enter the churchyard in the night. This he agreed to and
received a sovereign on account. He informed Mr Kilshaw,
his employer, of the matter and in the course of the day five
constables were placed to watch.
Needless to say the would be grave robbers were caught and
transported for their attempt at bribery.
The area at the foot of Donegall Street where the prostitutes
stood is also one of the most historic in Belfast (No 11). Known
as the Four Corners it is difficult to work out how this came to
be considering that there were in fact seven of them. Situated
here is the Waring Street end of Sugarhouse Entry where the
United Irishmen were first established.
The immediate
One of the main money making
activities for some of the men folk
was bodysnatching
origins of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland can be traced to the
setting up of the Society of United Irishmen in this entry in
October 1791. Inspired by the French Revolution, and with
great admiration for the new democracy of the United States,
the United Irishmen were led by Theobald Wolfe Tone,
Thomas Russell, Henry Joy McCracken and William Drennan.
They came together to secure a reform of the Irish parliament;
and they sought to achieve this goal by uniting Protestant,
Catholic and Dissenter in Ireland into a single movement.
From the beginning, Dublin Castle, the seat of government in
Ireland, viewed the new organisation with the gravest suspicion, and with the outbreak of war between Britain (and Ireland) and France in February 1793, suspicion hardened to naked hostility. The unabashed admiration of the United Irishmen for the French seemed akin to treason. The discovery of
negotiations between certain United Irishmen, notably
Theobald Wolfe Tone, and the French government confirmed
suspicions and led to the suppression of the society in May
1794.
in Ballyroney on the 1st of September, 1761. At sixteen he
was apprenticed to his elder brother, a woollen-draper, and at
twenty-four he married and set up in business for himself. He
had made a fortune of £8,000 by 1790, when he abandoned
business for politics. In 1791 he suggested to Henry Joy
McCracken the idea of a society of Irishmen of every persuasion to work for Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform. He became acquainted with Tone about this time, and
together they founded the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast, with Tone the chief organiser.
In 1792 Neilson established the Northern Star, the organ of
the United Irishmen in the north, and became its editor. He
had now adopted Tone’s republican outlook and in his paper
advocated complete separation from England. Several prosecutions followed, and in September 1796 he was arrested
and imprisoned in Dublin, first in Newgate and then in
Kilmainham. His health suffered, and in February 1798 he
was released on condition that he abstain from 'treasonable
conspiracy'. However, he was soon active in assisting Edward
Fitzgerald in preparing for a rising.
After the arrest of Fitzgerald in May 1798 Neilson went to
Newgate Jail to reconnoitre for a rescue but was captured af-
ter a desperate resistance in which he was badly wounded. He
was indicted for high treason with other leaders. Some of the
prisoners, seeing that the rising had failed and in order to stay
further executions, agreed to disclose their plans without implicating individuals, and to submit to banishment. Neilson
was included, probably because the government was unsure
of being able to secure his conviction. Despite the agreement
he was detained at Fort George in Scotland from 1799 to 1802
and then deported to the Netherlands.
After making a secret visit to Dublin and Belfast he made his
way to America in December 1802 and was about to launch
an evening paper when he died suddenly at Poughkeepsie,
New York, on the 29th August 1803.
Another United Irishmen connection with this junction is the
old Exchange Buildings (No 13). Built in 1769 as the Exchange
it was enlarged in 1776 by Lord Donegall when the
Assembly Rooms were added as a first floor. It was in these
that the famous Harp Festival was held in 1792 but it was also
here that the United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken stood
trial in 1798.
Proud to belong to two important Belfast Presbyterian families, Henry Joy McCracken always used his full name. His
SUGARHOUSE ENTRY
Samuel
Neilson
Driven underground, the Society re-constituted itself as a
secret, oath-bound, organisation, dedicated to the pursuit of a
republican form of government in a separate and independent
Ireland. This was to be achieved primarily by direct French
military intervention. The plan came closest to success following the arrival of a French invasion fleet, carrying some
14,000 soldiers, off the southern coast of Ireland in December
1796. Adverse weather conditions, however, prevented the
French from landing, and the fleet was forced to make its way
back to France. From this date on, Dublin Castle stepped up
its war against the United Irishmen, infiltrating their ranks
with spies and informers, invoking draconian legislation
against subversives, turning a blind eye to military excesses,
and to those of the resolutely loyalist Orange Order, and building up its defence forces lest the French should return in
strength. (www.bbc.co.uk/history). Needless to say the United Irishmen were defeated but today a lot of myths still surround the
organisation. For example one of these is that the Society was
formed by Wolfe Tone. This is wrong and while Tone certainly played a leading part the organisation was in fact established by William Drennan and whose cottage stood at the
corner of Sugarhouse Entry and Waring Street.
Neilson was the son of a Presbyterian minister who was born
Today nothing much remains of what was once Sugarhouse
Entry. The small entry was once a passageway, which connected Waring Street to High Street. The entry itself is situated behind the Bridge Street offices of Northern Ireland Electricity. Looking at it today it is hard to believe that it was once
a hive of activity but this shadowy passage of old Belfast,
which had its friendly mirror near High Street end, is still fresh
in the memories of our older generation.
Its story begins in the latter part of the 1600s when it was
situated in ‘My Lady’s Garden.’ The Countess of Donegall
(‘My Lady’) by a lease dated 1678 granted to George
Macartney, this garden and a house at the Waring Street end,
which was occupied by a Mr. Wilkinson. On this leasehold
Macartney erected a sugar house and so commenced a sugar
refinery with its stoves, ports and pans near Waring Street,
which was then known as Broad Street. Macartney, in his will
dated 1683, bequeathed the refinery to his two sons, Chichester and Arthur. In those days, when tea and coffee were very
rare beverages in Ireland, sugar was used for confectionery
and cooking, so most of the brown sugar made at the works
was exported, the Baltic countries receiving the molasses and
syrups. This old byway was called ‘Sugar House Lane’ in a
legal document of 1707, and at the High Street end was an inn
known as the ‘Sugar Loaf.’ The sugar house carried on business and passed through different ownership's until the night
of the big fire, November 17th 1785, when between one and
two o’clock in the morning the premises went up in flames. A
new sugarhouse was built and the Belfast Sugar House Company carried on in Belfast in the days of the Peninsular War. It
was in this entry, in an inn kept by Peg Barclay, that the Society of United Irishmen was incubated in the stormy last decade of the 18th century under the name of the ‘Muddlers Club.’
It was in the same building that the bewitchingly attractive
barmaid Bell Martin, from Portaferry, played the notorious
role of a government spy and informed on the ‘United Men.’
Later the inn became the favourite ‘local’ for the Scottish and
English soldiers and was referred to as ‘Nugents Den,’ after
the Commander-in-Chief of the Royalist forces in the north.
In 1817 an order was made that no lady was to be carried
through Sugarhouse Entry in a sedan chair after midnight, but
later with the establishment of the Borough Police, that order
was withdrawn. Today we can scan through the old Belfast as
a place of good cheer, good business, and the haunt of ‘horsey’
fans. But in April 1941 all was to be lost forever. On that date
the German Luftwaffe came to Belfast and completed what
was then thought impossible. A massive bombing raid was
carried out on the city in which many parts where obliterated
including Sugarhouse Entry. When the Second World War
ended new rebuilding programmes were started throughout
Belfast. The buildings, which made up the old Sugarhouse
Entry, were never rebuilt and a large government building replaced them and although the entry is still there it is closed at
each end to protect the government building from bomb attacks during the IRA campaign. To the people of the city
Sugarhouse Entry was one of those essential and quaint city
near cuts where the shades of old Belfast still lingered but
unfortunately its memories are now almost forgotten.
TOP LEFT- The old Exchange rooms
where Henry Joy McCracken stood trial.
BOTTOM LEFT - The execution of
Henry Joy McCracken at nearby
Cornmarket.
BELOW - Number 25 Donegall Street
where the Lying in Hospital was first set
up and which later became the Royal
Maternity Hospital.
BOTTOM - A view of lower Donegall
Street showing the Brown Linen Hall to
the right.
father, John McCracken, was an entrepreneur and associated
with many of Belfast's leading philanthropic ventures; his
maternal grandfather, Francis Joy, owned important paper mills
and was the founder of The Belfast News-Letter. The Joys - of
Huguenot descent - were also a public-spirited family.
Henry was early interested in radical politics and used his
position as owner of a cotton mill to travel extensively, making political contacts; he was always concerned with the welfare and education of his workers. He became a United Irishman in 1795 and was arrested on suspicion the following year,
spending fifteen months in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin.
When the insurrection broke out in June 1798, McCracken
was made general of the forces mustered at Donegore, which
then attacked Antrim town. They were defeated by government troops; after a month on the run McCracken was captured in Carrickfergus, and tried for treason and hanged in the
Cornmarket, Belfast, on the same day: 17th July 1798. His
sister Mary Ann had a doctor standing by in case there was
still life in the body after it was cut down; but in vain.
McCracken was buried at St George's, High Street, but the
remains were later transferred to the Clifton Street Cemetery
behind the old Poor House (No. 12). www.ulsterhistory.co.uk
One unique feature about Donegall Street is the fact that at
either end of it it has Belfast’s two oldest buildings, the old
Poor House (No. 12) and the old Exchange (No. 13). Today
there are some guide books and tours which informs us that St
Anne’s cathedral is the street’s most notable building but nothing could be further from the truth. For example a small building near the bottom of the street is among the ‘plain’ looking
buildings but in terms of history it really is something else.
Situated at the at the corner and above Exchange Place it was
here that the Lying in Hospital was first established. Basically what this was was a place for the poorer women to come
and give birth. It later moved to larger purpose built premises
on nearby Clifton Street before eventually becoming the Royal
Maternity Hospital. These misleading guides would also inform us that Donegall Street was a street comprising some of
Belfast’s grandest buildings but an old lady who was still living in 1868 at the age of 92 remembered that on one side of
Donegall Street the houses were thatched with straw.
There were indeed some prominent buildings erected after
these houses and all have a fascinating history but unfortunately most are now long gone.
In more recent history Donegall Street has also featured prominently but sadly not for the right reasons. In the 1970’s, at the
height of the IRA’s bombing campaign against commercial
and economic targets in the centre of Belfast, one such bomb
exploded in Donegall Street out side the arcade which connects it to North Street (No. 14). The following extract is taken
from Issue 11 of The Troubles magazine:Monday 20th March 1972 - Six die in Belfast bomb
Six people, two of them members of the RUC, have been killed
and more than 97 others injured when a bomb exploded in the
centre of Belfast. Every available ambulance in Belfast was
rushed to Lower Donegall Street, near the Newsletter offices
after the 50 to 100lbs of gelignite blew up in a car. Many of
the people caught in the horror were fleeing from a bomb scare
in nearby Church Street. Two RUC men and four civilians
were killed outright. Donegall Street looked like a battlefield
in seconds, as the smoke and dust began to clear, injured people could be seen lying in pools of blood. Others were being
helped into shops where they were given on-the-spot first aid.
Some of the casualties lay in agony with splinters of glass
embedded in their wounds.
Confusion was caused by a number of different phone calls:
11.45am - A call was received from Northern Agencies, Church
Street (off Donegall Street) saying that they had been warned
that a “big bomb” was in their premises.
11.52am - A call received by the RUC from the Irish News
that they had been warned that there was a “big bomb” in
Church Street.
11.55am – A call received by the RUC from the Belfast Telegraph saying that an anonymous caller had warned that a
bomb was planted in a building in Lower Donegall Street.
11.58am – Bomb explodes in Donegall Street.
The death toll reached seven after one of those who was badly
injured died a short time later in hospital.
Those who died were as follows:ERNEST McALLISTER, AGED 38
Mr McAllister was one of two RUC killed in the blast and
lived in Lisburn
BERNARD O’NEILL, AGED 36
Mr O’Neill was the second RUC member and lived in the
Orangefield area of Belfast.
SYDNEY BELL, AGED 65
He lived in Finsbury Street and was driving past in his van
when the blast occurred.
ERNEST DOUGAN, AGED 40
Mr Dougan lived in Tennent Street.
SAMUEL TRAINOR, AGED 40
Mr Trainor was one of the refuse collectors in the area at the
time. He lived in Northwood Drive and had been a member
of the UDR.
JAMES MACKLIN, AGED 27
He lived in Penrith Street in the Shankill area and was also
one of the refuse collectors.
A seventh victim, HENRY MILLAR, AGED 79, died a few
weeks later as a result of injuries received in the bomb blast.
He lived in York Parade.
One hundred and fifty people were injured in the blast.
The junction of Donegall Street and Church Street (N0. 15)
was also the scene of an attack during the conflict. During a
‘Rag Day’ students parade on the 3rd of March 1978, which
was going along Donegall Street, a number of IRA members
emerged from the crowd dressed in rag costumes and shot
dead a civilian searcher and British soldier who were manning a permanent road block. The victims were 25 year old
Norma Spence from Arran Park in the Dundonald area and 21
year old James Nowasad, a trooper in the Royal Tank
Regiment.
Going back to the Victorian period Church Street was the scene
of a dreadful fire a few days before Christmas in 1867 as
described in the Weekly Northern Whig of the 28th of
December:The fire took place about ten o’clock in the premises of Mr.
Joseph Macaulay, hat and band box manufacturer, Church
Street, a small sized three-storey house, or about two ordinary storeys in height, and about twenty minutes past ten
o’clock is stated to have been the time at which information was taken to the station. Mrs. Macaulay, aged about
thirty years; her step daughter, aged thirteen years, and
three other daughters still younger have all died in consequences. The head being in the Corn Exchange conducting a class and the first information he had was the dreadful fate of his whole family. When the fire brigade arrived
with an engine and tender on the scene of the conflagration, the flames were issuing out of the shop windows in
dense masses. The shop stairs were burning up to the first
landing, and the heat in the lower part of the premises was
so intense as to preclude any person from passing through.
A considerable portion of the stairs on the second storey
was also burned, and the heat was so great in the part of
the house that the paint on the doors and windows was in
large blisters. Such was the intensity of the heat and smoke
that it was pronounced by those competent to judge to be
sufficient in a short time to take away life. The superintendent, Mr. Reilly, immediately on being informed that
there were people in the house, gave orders to a portion of
his men to get their ladders jointed and placed on the side
of the house, which they quickly did. All the endeavours of
the men were in the first instance directed to the saving of
the life, and when the live and the dead were got out, then
Mr. Reilly directed a base to be laid on, and endeavoured
successfully to confine fire to the premises where it originated. The water was plentifully held on the flames, which
were subdued in about half an hour. Two jets were brought
from the main Donegall Street - the length of the hose
employed being about six hundred feet.
The fire originated on the ground floor, where the business
of box making was carried on. In consequence of the tinder like nature of the goods, it raged with fury; and what
makes matter all the more deplorable, and the fatal results
all the greater, is the fact that it is said to have been burned
for at least half an hour before the alarm was given at the
fire engine station. In the meantime a crowd had gathered
and Mr. Martin painter who resides opposite being among
the first on the scene, and hearing the cries of the inmates,
at once made of the efforts he possibly could to have them
rescued. They produced a ladder, which was, unfortunately,
to short, but which a number of the crowd attempted to
climb. The result was that the ladder, through over stress,
snapped, and a man, as we are informed, had his arm
dislocated. On the alarm being given at the engine station,
the Brigade under Superintendent Reilly, started with the
greatest possible despatch; said in five minutes from the
ringing of the fire bell Deputy Superintendent Moorhead
and Hugh Nelson were in the room in which Mrs. Macaulay
and the children were. The apartment which turned out to
be the kitchen, is situated on the third floor, and this rendered the difficulty all the greater in reaching there. The
members of the fire brigade put up one of their ladders,
and with the assistance of another ladder, which had in the
meantime been procured by the crowd; they ascended; but
whether to enter or not was questions which the firemen
had to weigh, lest on so doing too much time every moment of which was then so precious - might be lost, as they
were not sure whether or not which was the apartment in
which the women and children were. Indeed a number of
people in the crowd shouted that there were more inmates
in the house. When Moorhead and Nelson got up the length
of the kitchen window, and, indeed, for some time before,
no cries of any kind were to be heard. Both the brave fellows “encircled their ears,” as one of them afterwards expressed himself to endeavour, if they could, to hear sounds
that would indicate the presence of any person in the flames.
At this time the room was filled with smoke, which also
came in dense clouds out of the window at which the firemen were. Nelson said he heard a sound which, if not the
hissing of the hose, must be some person breathing. In he
then went through the window followed by Moorhead.
When inside the sounds were, of course, more audible, and,
having felt around, they discovered Mrs. Macaulay lying
close to the window, with the two younger children in her
arms. The second eldest girl was first caught hold by the
firemen, who brought her to the window, when each man
took a separate ladder, and she was lowered to some other
members of the brigade, who received them when about
half way down. The shout from the crowd which went
through the air as they saw the girl upon the ladder was
one of exultation and joy. Moorhead went back into the
room, when the first object he got hold of was the eldest
girl. She, poor thing, had been too long a subject to the
fire and smoke to render any assistance herself; but the
firemen, with almost incredible agility, which was all the
more astonishing and laudable when we consider the awful position in which they were being at the time almost
half suffocated - had her brought out of the window and
lowered in the same way as before, amid still louder cheers.
LEFT - Junction of Upper and Lower
Donegall Street with York Street and
Royal Avenue shortly before many of the
buildings in the picture were destroyed
in the Luftwaffe blitz of 1941.
BELOW - Looking up Upper Donegall
Street from Lower Donegall Street in the
mid 1920’s
John Street was the street which connected Royal Avenue to
Donegall Street and which was later renamed Royal Avenue
as a continuation of this thoroughfare. (No. 16) As previously
mentioned human skeletons were unearthed in the centre of
Belfast on a regular basis and quite a few in this one small
street. For example an interesting discovery was made when
quite a few human skulls were unearthed at its junction with
North Street. One newspaper report which appeared in the
Northern Whig on March 2nd, 1883 described the findings.
At the present time foundations are being cut at the
junction of North Street and Royal Avenue for an extensive establishment to be erected for Messrs Foster
Green & Co. It will, when completed, adjoin their
North Street premises. While the workmen were engaged in cutting the first section of the foundations,
they came upon some interesting relics of old Belfast.
At one place they found a number of human skulls and
bones, and a little further on (a few feet from North
Street) they discovered what were evidently the remains
of the wall of the old garrison. The wall, which is five
feet thick, appears to have been skilfully constructed,
and consists of outer layers of solid masonry the centre portion being filled up with 'puddle,' the whole
forming a very strong wall. There has been dug up a
number of trunks of trees, which had been used as pipes
for the conveyance of water to the garrison. They are
apparently the trunks of apple trees, and are in a thorough state of preservation. They appear to have been
hollowed out by a burning process, and the cavities at
the ends, forming junctions, are made larger than at
the centre.
Needless to say the report seems to be more interested in the
wall and the old pipes but once again we must ask how these
skulls came to be here? Were they the result of some sort of
burials and if so where were the rest of the bones? One theory
which we come to is that they may be the skulls of people
who were hanged who had their heads removed and stuck on
pikes as a warning to others. But if this is the case then how
come there is not even a mere mention in any of our history
books?
Before John Street was demolished in the 1880s for the erection of buildings such as the present Telegraph and Central
Library one section of the old street consisted of a row of small
country type houses. One was derelict and boarded up for a
number of years because it was said to have been haunted by
the ghost of an elderly woman.
The residents of the street told of how the former occupants
were terrified out of their home in the 1860s by a ghost who
threw various items of pottery and furniture around the back
downstairs room and that on one occasion it wrecked every
item which sat in the yard. One of the families children later
claimed to have seen what appeared to have been an old woman
walking up and down in the back room talking to herself. The
young girl then stated that the woman completely disappeared
before her eyes. The family fled the house and after doing so
the owner boarded it up and it was never let again.
In May 1882 (almost a year previous to the above discovery)
workmen were laying new pipes and sewers through the street
and as they were digging the trenches one of them discovered
what appeared to have been human bones. The police were
called and the bones were later found to have been of an old
woman which had lay buried for a number of years.
The bones were removed and buried in the Union Workhouse
Graveyard and it appears that the haunting was never heard of
again.
The upper section of Donegall Street leading to the old Poor House also has quite a disguinguised history. Today quite a few of
the old historic buildings in this section have been restored to their former glory at either side of St Patrick’s Church. The
Congregational Church is still situated there which has a long history including the fact that it was from here that the Rev.
William O’Hanlon carried out his walks among the poor of Belfast. Unfortunately a lot of the old buildings are long gone
including the two hotels which stood at the junction of York Street and the Turkish Baths. This establishment was set up by Dr
Barter three years before the Turkish Baths for the Destitute Poor (also known as The People's Turkish Baths) in Cork. Although
it continued to be known as the Working Class Turkish Baths until at least 1872 it does not appear to have been very successful.
Thomas Coakley, the manager, wrote to Richard Metcalfe in 1872 saying that,
…though…in operation here about twelve years, yet, so very few avail themselves of them, that, in fact, they are not worth
keeping open, inasmuch as they are not paying expenses.
Some time after Dr Barter's death, these baths were taken over by John North who, in 1882, was to purchase Barter's large
establishment in Upper Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) Dublin. They were demolished in the 1930’s but all this is a
history lesson for another time.
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